Fear is an emotion that allows us to survive through learned survival mechanisms during our phylogenetic evolution. Fear allows us to flee, fight, or even paralyze ourselves in the face of a significant threat to our life, for Therefore, we know that it is an indispensable emotion and recognition per se will allow a healthy expression of the herself.
Phobias are recognized as intense and disproportionate fears of certain objects, situations or environments; Phobias therefore represent that pathological expression of fear since they produce disability and significant clinical deterioration in the lives of the people who suffer from it. In this Psychology-Online article, we share with you a particularly important topic due to its clinical presentation: fear of forests or hilophobia and its symptoms, causes and treatment.
Index
- What is forest phobia called?
- What does hilophobia mean
- Symptoms of fear of forests
- Causes of fear of forests
- Treatment of fear of forests
What is the phobia of forests called.
The pathological fear of forests, that is, a fear that incapacitates the person who manifests it before the approach or the sole proposal of its approach constitutes one of the various existing phobias: hilophobia.
Forest phobia is called hilophobia and many times it occurs concurrently with xylophobia, the pathological or disproportionate fear of wood.
What does hilophobia mean.
Hylophobia is a pathological fear of forests, that is to say, a fear that incapacitates the person before the phobic stimulus (the forests). Continuing the line about fear as a natural or normal human emotion, the phobia of forests produces a cognitive, physiological and behavioral reaction that is not adequate to what is expected.
People with hilophobia generally show a evasive behavior to the phobic stimulus, which are the forests or any representation of it.
Symptoms of fear of forests.
Below we share which are the characteristic symptoms of fear of the forests, that beyond the aforementioned fear there are others:
Intense anxiety or physiological response / panic attack
The most common and anxiety physiological symptoms of panic attacks are as follows:
- Crying
- Staying paralyzed.
- Chest pain.
- Excessive sweating
- Mydriasis (dilation of the pupil).
- Difficulty breathing.
- Motor restlessness.
- Dizziness
- Headache.
- Shaking chills.
- Tremors
- Nausea or abdominal discomfort.
- Paresthesias (numbness or tingling sensation).
Anticipatory response
People with hylophobia tend to experience greater physiological activation when they anticipate or are exposed to an object related to their phobic stimulus (forests). When they pass near a forest or places surrounded by them, the subjects manifest a slight or intense physiological activation.
The level of fear experienced can vary with the proximity of the forests, objects or related situations and can occur in anticipation of the same or in the actual presence of the forests.
Cognitive symptoms
- Thought of losing control or going crazy.
- Thoughts get to die.
- Thoughts of catastrophe about what might happen in the forest.
Avoidance behaviors
Forest avoidance or stimuli related to this phobic stimulus. Active avoidance means that the subject exhibits behaviors that are intentionally aimed at preventing or minimizing contact with forests or related situations.
Some individuals with hylophobia suffer for many years and their life circumstances change depending on the need to avoid forests as much as possible (for example, moving to an area where there are no forests or areas green).
Causes of fear of forests.
There are forests that can represent or portend a considerable amount of dangers when entering them, and it becomes much more understandable than if the approach to these places occurs at times nocturnal.
Traumatic experience
Most of the specific phobias have a origin in a traumatic experience (for example, if in childhood it was lost in a forest, being attacked by an animal would provoke a representation of the forest as a habitat of its aggressor, even indirectly having lived in places near forests when chronically traumatized by relatives or neighbors can develop this phobia).
Environmental
Even the knowledge of fictional stories or related by someone else about horror events in a forest can be a quite probable cause of this phobia.
Biological causes
Phobias can also be caused by a neurochemical alteration: A brain structure called the "amygdala" can influence the control of the response to fear. People who have this hyperactive structure may have a response to fear exacerbated, which causes increased anxiety in situations involving the danger they represent the forests.
Treatment of fear of forests.
The systematic desensitization is a technique developed by J.Wolpe to reduce anxiety reactions and is especially effective in treating phobias.
The systematic desensitization It consists of asking the subject that, being relaxed, (for this they will have previously trained in relaxation), imagine several scenes that each provoke a greater reaction than the previous one (related to the forests). The repeated presentation in imagination, while the subject is relaxed, of the phobic stimuli, produces the gradual weakening and the elimination of the anxiety responses.
Relaxation allows the subject to be in contact with the phobic stimulus long enough (even if only imaginatively) for the extinction of fear.
It is not essential to perform this technique, but it facilitates the permanence of the subject in the face of the feared stimulus. Because reduces your discomfort and makes the flight response less likely. Therefore, systematic desensitization is a gradual and prolonged exposure with escape response prevention.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Fear of forests or hilophobia: symptoms, causes and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.
Bibliography
- American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5). Editorial Panamericana
